Freshman Orientation QUESTTTIOONS

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Maryland - College Park
1

<p>I have 2 questions about it, please answer them :)</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Are you required to sleepover or can you opt out of that portion of it?</p></li>
<li><p>Is it better to go to a early or later orientation?
I would prefer to go to a later one, but my mom brought up the issue of that's when you sign up for classes. If I go later like I want to, will the best classes be filled up?
Or would they not be filled up because I would mainly be taking introductory courses for credits like criminology 101 ect.-- which are usually huge classes.</p></li>
</ol>

2

<ol>
<li><p>The overnight stay is part of the program. I’m almost certain it’s required. Is there a particular reason you wouldn’t want to?</p></li>
<li><p>It’s up to you, honestly. If there’s a reason you’d prefer a later orientation… but the reason incoming students typically prefer earlier orientations, speaking solely on the issue of classes, is that there would be more flexibility as far as what times the courses meet (i.e. the 11am courses go faster than the 8am ones do…) and what sections have spaces. There should be open courses, especially for the basic intro courses, but you just might not have as many options.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Hopefully that answers your question…</p>

3

<p>It’s not required, just highly recommended because program runs until about 10pm the first night and starts at 8am the next day.</p>

<p>The earlier the better. Like the above poster said, you’ll have more flexibility with class choices if you go earlier.</p>

4

<p>I would say stay overnight, from what I recall the kids stay up and hang out into the wee hours. It is a bonding experience.</p>

<p>Our DS went in July and had no problems with getting any classes, but he was also in scholars.</p>

<p>One thing to realize is that Honors/Gemstone/Scholars/General will have different orientations. For example Scholars has specific days and do not go the same time as General. Thus, it may be true earlier the better for general admit.</p>

5

<p>Even so, even for Honors and Scholars students, the earlier the better. Honors students have it a little easier because they save seats in Honors Seminars for later orientations.</p>

6

<p>That is a good point. Most (all?) academic departments put some blocks on the big classes (intro courses), that they don’t open until later in the summer. (I.e. there are some seats in the classes that you can’t sign up for at the very beginning of the summer, to ensure that students with later orientations can still get into the courses).</p>

7

<ol>
<li><p>The website specifies that Orientation sessions are two-day, overnight stay programs. That says to me that you have to stay overnight, but if you have a serious issue, call and talk to the Orientation staff about it.</p></li>
<li><p>Earlier is better but we also went in July and DS didn’t have any trouble registering for classes, although there were specific classes that were already full and he had to find other options. If you’re in an LEP, there are sections already reserved for students in the LEP so you won’t have any problem getting into those classes. You may have some difficulty getting into big survey classes during the time/day you want, that’s all.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Overall, Orientation is well worth the time for both parents and students. I did a lot of research before Orientation but I still learned a lot and there were a lot of parents who seemed to be completely surprised by things they learned during Orientation.</p>

<p>Also, a word of caution…parents don’t get to spend time with the department if S or D is in an LEP…you do that during Spring Open House. S or D will spend little time with the department other than the advising/class selection session. Orientation is really a macro, big-picture look at the university as a whole…with a lot of the mechanics of college life from student and parent angle.</p>

8

<p>Thanks for the answers-- i think ill go early for the class sign up even though I’m in an LEP (dont want to take any chances)</p>

<p>and the reason i was asking about the sleepover thing is I had already signed up, but found out this week that my graduation was on the same day :/</p>

<p>I was seeing if maybe i could manage squeezing them both into one day…but i guess not since it runs till 10pm</p>

<p>for the orientation is it a group of incoming freshmen or
one freshman and a group of orientation ppl/students that help present it?</p>

<p>and is the block for calsses put in place after a certain # of ppl have signed up, or is it literally no one can sign up for it in the earlier summer orientations?</p>

<p>and to the above post… what does the S and D stand for?</p>

9

<p>S = son, D = daughter.</p>

<p>Regarding the block for classes, they set aside blocks (or simply open up additional seats or new sections) for classes. The math department at last year’s orientation said that all freshmen who wanted to take the math course that they placed into would be accommodated. That being said, later in the summer all that may be left are 8:00 a.m. classes or classes that are awkwardly spaced, or with the professors with less than stellar ratings on ourUMD.com. (Check out this student written and run site for the best reviews of instructors, the distribution of grades historically in their classes, etc.).</p>

<p>Before you go to Orientation, it really is better (and you feel less overwhelmed) if you spend some time looking at the schedule of classes on Testudo (registration for Fall 2010 starts soon…registration dates are done by seniority/credit hours)…you can watch as the classes fill up. If you can look up what’s required of your major in the online catalog, you can really be much more prepared to make the scheduling decisions at Orientation.</p>

<p>Regarding the overnight…you’ll have to decide, but both my D’s met people at Orientation that they still hang out with. Yours is a legit reason. I certainly would encourage even those students who live 10 minutes away to stay overnight instead of hanging out with your high school friends for one night.</p>

<p>After the initial welcome, etc. on the first day, you ditch your parents. You’ll be divided by college (and sometimes by more specific majors, I think), and will spend most of the time the first day with that group of people. You’ll meet with an advisor and register on the 2nd day, unless they change it.</p>

<p>The presentations for the parents are really set up to give you an idea of what to expect once the student starts at UMD, and covers ALL KINDS of topics. It really is intended to make the parents not so panicked about letting Jr. go off into the world that is UMD.</p>

<p>Final note, if you have to waitlist for classes at orientation, it’s not nearly as bad as it sounds. There is always a flurry of schedule changes at the beginning of each semester (and a lot of people bailing out of courses that they don’t think they are ready for), and your advisor will be able to tell you how good they think your chances are of clearing the waitlist).</p>

10

<p>wow
thanks for all the info.
it really was helpful –
ill definitely look over the classes and the site you gave me.
and im less stressed now about the whole thing :)</p>

11

<p>Yeah, that is unfortunate to have graduation on the same day… call the Orientation Office (if you haven’t already) to schedule a different Orientation. They’ll definitely be able to help you. :slight_smile: </p>

<p>“Final note, if you have to waitlist for classes at orientation, it’s not nearly as bad as it sounds” –> 100% true. I was 12 on a waitlist and made the class. It’s not the end of the world (though it may seem like it at the time). </p>

<p>“After the initial welcome, etc. on the first day, you ditch your parents. You’ll be divided by college (and sometimes by more specific majors, I think), and will spend most of the time the first day with that group of people. You’ll meet with an advisor and register on the 2nd day, unless they change it.” You can see a schedule of what you’ll do, hour-by-hour, during orientation at the website (orientation.umd.edu).</p>

12

<p>I’m in an LEP-- does that mean my group of orientation ppl will be in my specific major? a.k.a. I will see them when I actually start to attend the college versus meeting them once then never seeing them again?</p>

<p>And for the overnight thing do you sleep w/ the same group?</p>

<p>–do you have a roommate, one big room you all sleep in, or a single room? and are the sleeping arrangements co-ed?</p>

13

<p>Terps9,</p>

<p>You are assigned a host. DS is one of the hosts. He has a spare bed in his dorm and hosts B/K’s and potential UMD students. That’s how it worked last year also as an incoming freshman.</p>

14

<p>Terps9, which “overnight thing” are you referring to? You can do an on-campus visit during the next couple of months that could include staying overnight with a host, as Jewels_08 indicates. If you are talking about overnight at Orientation, you will be in an air conditioned dorm (Cumberland), rooming with someone of the same sex as you, and if you meet up with someone during the first day and want to share a room, you can tell the orientation people who are there when you check in to the dorm…otherwise, what they did last year was assign people in the order they were standing in line, i.e. you’d be with the person in front or in back of you…</p>

15

<p>Terps9, are you talking about the overnight stay for the orientation program? That works differently…</p>

<p>Either you give the name of a student you’d like to room with, or they just put you with someone who’s signing in at the same time (this is in the afternoon of the first day). You both sleep in a dorm room in Cumberland for the night. You’d have a same-sex roommate.</p>